China has adopted a new anti-terror law, which grants the government the right to demand tech companies to decrypt electronic messages stored on their servers. Of course, this law sparked concern from foreign firms. Fortunately, the law as enacted falls short of a draft bill which would have required tech firms to explicitly install backdoors on their devices, thus providing the Chinese government privileged access to the communications of the public.

The government of the country defended the law, pointing to the one proposed in Western nations, like the UK’s draft IP bill (the latter grants similar powers to the British government).

After the Chinese parliament passed the law, the parliament’s Criminal Law Division under the Legislative Affairs Committee claimed that the country was doing the same as other Western nations, asking technology companies to help prevent terrorism. The authority assured that this change won’t affect the normal operation of tech firms, and they have nothing to fear in terms of having backdoors installed or losing intellectual property rights.

The Chinese law is also similar to the British bill dubbed Snooper’s Charter in the confusion both laws have sparked amongst tech companies. The problem for many is that the Chinese law is vague about what exactly the government will demand from the tech firms when it comes to breaking encryption. In this regard, the critics believe that it could take half a year for regulations to emerge that may clarify the government’s intent.

In the meantime, the British bill has faced criticism from the tech firms for its anti-encryption stances. For example, Apple explicitly appealed to the UK government to reconsider the legislation, pointing out that it is unfair to weaken security for the overwhelming majority of law-abiding customers along with the very few who pose a threat. The tech giants have warned that where the UK leads, nations with weaker human rights records may follow by pointing at the Britain’s example before breaking encryption of protected communications in their own nations.

By the way, China’s new legislation also prohibits media to report on details of terror attacks: for example, it has a provision that media and social media can’t report on details of terror activities that might lead to imitation. It also states that no “cruel and inhuman” scenes can be shown.

No cruel or inhuman scenes may be shown eh? Well It seems to be moving right along.
All the powerful have to do now is create a few more atrocities and it will be 1984. The sheeple are so easy to control. They cant wait to do it.(give up their freedom's).